Parental Attitudes Toward Advergames (Negative) Scale

What it measures

A six-item, five-point Likert-type scale measuring the negative attitudes of parents toward advergames — brand-sponsored interactive games designed to entertain children while promoting products. The scale captures concerns about the exploitative potential of advergames, including their propensity to generate unrealistic consumption desires, create family conflict, and use deceptive tactics targeting vulnerable young audiences. Administered to a geographically diverse sample of 214 U.S. parents of children aged 7 to 11 via an online survey. Items were adapted for the advergames context from prior instruments measuring parental concerns about child-directed advertising more broadly. The study found that authoritarian and authoritative parents reported more negative attitudes toward advergames than indulgent parents, though all parenting styles skewed negative overall.

Response format

5-point Likert (strongly disagree to strongly agree; anchors not explicitly stated in source article)

Scale items

• Advergames make children want things they don't really need.
• Advergames take undue advantage of children.
• Advergames lead children to make unreasonable purchase demands on their parents.
• There is too much advergaming directed at children.
• Advergames directed at children lead to family conflict.
• Advergames use tricks and gimmicks to get children to buy their products.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

The scale was adapted from two prior instruments: three items were modified from a measure of parental concern about child-directed food advertising (Crosby & Grossbart, 1984), and three items were adapted from a value corruption subscale developed for web advertising attitudes (Wolin, Korgaonkar, & Lund, 2002, International Journal of Advertising). The items were substantially reworded to address the advergames context specifically. Validity was assessed via exploratory factor analysis alongside items for two related constructs; with the exception of one cross-loading item (excluded from the final scale), items loaded on their respective factors. No CFA or AVE data were reported. The construct is distinct from general attitudes toward advertising (see Pollay & Mittal, 1993, ID 548) and is specific to the interactive, brand-embedded format of advergames targeting children.

Citation

Evans, N.J., Carlson, L., & Hoy, M.G. (2013). Coddling our kids: Can parenting style affect attitudes toward advergames? Journal of Advertising, 42(2-3), 228-240.

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